I signed it yesterday.
Starting September 1, 2008, and running through June 30, 2009, I am contracted to teach business and conversational English to students on the Longquan campus of the Chengdu University of Information Technology (CUIT) in China.
Founded in 1956, CUIT is considered a key university in China’s Sichuan Province. It has approximately 25,000 students enrolled at three campuses. Although its main specialties are in science and engineering, it also offers programs in economics, liberal arts, management, law and philosophy.
According to my preliminary discussions with the university, I’ll be teaching three or four classes of business and economics undergraduates who wish to improve their English language skills. I’m told that they will be able to read English, and know the grammar, but will find speaking and listening a challenge. The description of their skill level reminds me of my own French-language skills after six years of instruction in middle school and high school. I hope they were more diligent language students than I was.
At this point, my feelings about my adventure are equal parts anticipation and anxiety.
The classes I’ll be teaching are “optional,” which means I’ll have to “impress” in the first few days, or my classroom for the rest of the term may be very lonely. On the plus side, I’m assured that Chinese students are very respectful of their teachers and honour their elders, so I feel there IS hope. I’ve also been doing a bit of research about the differences in learning styles between China and “the West,” and I’m going to do my best to adapt.
I’m also experiencing some “there but for the grace of God,” thinking. Chengdu is very close (about 60 miles) to the centre of where a very severe earthquake struck at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, May 12. I admit to relief that it struck in May rather than October. Having lived my entire life until now in the geographically stable centre of North America, I’m not sure how well I’d cope with earthquakes and aftershocks. I sincerely hope the tectonic plates of the region have finished their shifting and quaking by the time I arrive in late August.
However, whatever happens, I have faith that I’ll survive.
That deals with my anxieties.
As for anticipation, I’M GOING TO THE MIDDLE KINGDOM!
I’m going to live in a city once called the “brocade city,” a city known as the capital of “Heavenly State,” the city where the Southern Silk Road began. I’m going to live nearby to the natural habitat of the giant panda. I’m going to experience a culture that was home to an emperor’s capital when my own ancestors were still hunting and gathering in the British Isles.
WOW!